Lake Street project in Ramsey at a halt

By Catherine Carrera

STAFF WRITER |

Ramsey Suburban News

Ramsey — The construction on Lake Street has been halted until the end of May while the county awaits delivery of a new culvert.

The municipal and county projects at the Lake Street bridge, over the Ramsey Brook between East Crescent and Franklin Turnpike, began in November and have forced closure of one of the borough's main access routes to and from Route 17 via Lake Street.

The borough's $600,000 portion of the work, a water main replacement which was done by P.M. Construction, involved replacing a 100-year-old, 6-inch water pipe with a 12-inch pipe. This was completed in January.

The county's $1.1 million project involves replacing the bridge and repairing its culvert, or the channel which carries water under the bridge. Oakland-based D.R. Mullen Construction was awarded the contract for the work and Bloomfield-based Dewberry Engineers was hired for $151,210 for inspection services.

Since construction began, the county has removed the old bridge, installed a temporary pedestrian bridge, cleared the area and set the dam in preparation of the culvert pipe.

"The utility work, which was supposed to be the major driver of any delay, has been completed" as of mid-March, Mayor Christopher Botta told the Borough Council days after meeting with county engineers to discuss the project's holdup. "They were supposed to drop the culvert March 17."

But, when the county contractor's vendor which manufactured the culvert delivered it, it had the wrong measurements, Botta said. "We were told about this when we went out there. The contractor and vendor tried to jury-rig it into place."

The "jury-rigging" didn't work and the county sent the pipe back to the vendor to re-manufacture one with the correct specifications, Botta said.

"There's an issue as to whether the county signed off on the wrong [specifications] before it went to fabrication," he said. "I haven't gotten to the bottom of that, but I will."

"The contractor's saying it's not his fault, the county's saying it's not their fault. All I know is that it's somebody's fault," he said. "The re-fabricated culvert should be dropped in by the end of May."

Botta said he is urging the county to open the road up to vehicular traffic once the pipe is in place.

Lake Street project in Ramsey at a halt

By Catherine Carrera

STAFF WRITER |

Ramsey Suburban News

Ramsey — The construction on Lake Street has been halted until the end of May while the county awaits delivery of a new culvert.

The municipal and county projects at the Lake Street bridge, over the Ramsey Brook between East Crescent and Franklin Turnpike, began in November and have forced closure of one of the borough's main access routes to and from Route 17 via Lake Street.

The borough's $600,000 portion of the work, a water main replacement which was done by P.M. Construction, involved replacing a 100-year-old, 6-inch water pipe with a 12-inch pipe. This was completed in January.

The county's $1.1 million project involves replacing the bridge and repairing its culvert, or the channel which carries water under the bridge. Oakland-based D.R. Mullen Construction was awarded the contract for the work and Bloomfield-based Dewberry Engineers was hired for $151,210 for inspection services.

Since construction began, the county has removed the old bridge, installed a temporary pedestrian bridge, cleared the area and set the dam in preparation of the culvert pipe.

"The utility work, which was supposed to be the major driver of any delay, has been completed" as of mid-March, Mayor Christopher Botta told the Borough Council days after meeting with county engineers to discuss the project's holdup. "They were supposed to drop the culvert March 17."

But, when the county contractor's vendor which manufactured the culvert delivered it, it had the wrong measurements, Botta said. "We were told about this when we went out there. The contractor and vendor tried to jury-rig it into place."

The "jury-rigging" didn't work and the county sent the pipe back to the vendor to re-manufacture one with the correct specifications, Botta said.

"There's an issue as to whether the county signed off on the wrong [specifications] before it went to fabrication," he said. "I haven't gotten to the bottom of that, but I will."

"The contractor's saying it's not his fault, the county's saying it's not their fault. All I know is that it's somebody's fault," he said. "The re-fabricated culvert should be dropped in by the end of May."

Botta said he is urging the county to open the road up to vehicular traffic once the pipe is in place.